A. Research Plan The Small Animal Ocular Imaging Core (SAOIC) comprises a suite of noninvasive imaging services for living mice and rats, including reflectance and fluorescence fundus imaging with a Micron III? mouse digital camera system, optical coherence tomography (OCT), adaptive optics (AO) combined with OCT, scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO) and AO-SLO using custom-built optical systems. These techniques allow widefield to cellular-level resolution imaging of the anterior segment, of the fundus vasculature with fluorescence angiography and phase-variance OCT, and of retinal neuronal and RPE cell structure and function. Mice are the most widely used mammalian model for the investigation of fundamental retinal physiology and cell biology, retinal disease and therapeutics. Noninvasive imaging of mice has become increasingly important in eye research, with commercial instruments such as Phoenix Ltd's Micron III widefield fundus camera (available in our facility) being widely employed. UC Davis has outstanding mouse husbandry facilities, and indeed, has one of the NIH-supported Mutant Mouse Regional Resource Centers (described above). The value of the SAOIC is further enhanced by the Molecular Construct and Packaging Core of this grant, which will provide for the production and packaging of DNA vectors for delivery to the mouse eye either by neonatal injection and iontophoresis, or by viral (AAV) packaging and intravitreal injection.